The next generation of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 8, is currently being developed behind closed doors. This time, the emphasis isn’t on pure speed, but instead on improving the user experience. Wi-Fi 8, known right now as IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability, still remains years away. Wireless technology is in a constant state of improvement: Each progression in the evolution of Wi-Fi takes several years to discuss, approve, and then deploy. Wi-Fi 7, the “current” standard, hasn’t even been formally ratified quite yet. But that’s not stopping the development of Wi-Fi 8 behind the scenes, and we already know some details. MediaTek’s Filogic wireless division has released some of what you can expect, with the caveat that final details won’t be nailed down until the final specification is released around Sept. 2028. The key phrase that you should think of in the context of Wi-Fi 8? Not peak throughput, but effective throughput. Wi-Fi 8 will look a lot like Wi-Fi 7 According to the Wi-Fi Alliance and MediaTek, the United States isn’t the driving force behind the wireless evolution. Instead, it’s China: The country has 650 million broadband subscribers and more than a quarter have 1Gbps broadband connections to their homes. Overall, the average connection speed is 487.6Mbps, which grew 18 percent in a year’s time. MediaTek Theoretically, 802.11bn / Wi-Fi 8 set out (Word document, via the IEEE) to provide enough wireless bandwidth to accommodate your broadband gateway supplying a few gigabits per second, and factoring in the ability of Ethernet to provide even more. EverythingRF interpreted that 2022 document, known as Project Authorization Request (PAR), as one that would provide a minimum aggregate throughput of 100Gbps. Since then, the PAR was approved in 2023, and the working group has begun hammering out more details. As of Nov. 2024, MediaTek believes that Wi-Fi 8 will look virtually identical to Wi-Fi 7 in several key areas: The maximum physical layer (PHY) rate will be the same at 2,880Mbps x 8, or 23Gbits/s. It will also use the same four frequency bands (2, 4, 5, and 6GHz) and the same 4096 QAM modulation across a maximum channel bandwidth of 320MHz. (A Wi-Fi 8 router won’t get 23Gbps of bandwidth, of course. According to MediaTek, the actual peak throughput in a “clean,” or laboratory, environment is just 80 percent or so of the hypothetical peak throughput, and actual, real-world results can be far less.) MediaTek Still, put simply, Wi-Fi 8 should deliver the same wireless bandwidth as Wi-Fi 7, using the same channels and the same modulation. Every Wi-Fi standard has also been backwards-compatible with its predecessors, too. What Wi-Fi 8 will do, though, is change how your client device, such as a PC or a phone, interacts with multiple access points. Think of this as an evolution of how your laptop talks to your home’s networking equipment. Over time, Wi-Fi has evolved from communications between one laptop and a router, across a single channel. Channel hopping routed different clients to different bands. When Wi-Fi 6 was developed, a dedicated 6GHz channel was added, sometimes as a dedicated “backhaul” between your home’s access points. Now, mesh networks are more common, giving your laptop a variety of access points, channels, and frequencies to select between. How Wi-Fi 8 will improve Wi-Fi technology MediaTek sees several opportunities to improve the coordination between access points and devices. (To be fair, we’re identifying these as MediaTek’s efforts, only because we can’t be sure that they’ll eventually be approved by the 802.11bn working group for Wi-Fi 8 as a whole.) Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR): This technology was first implemented in Wi-Fi 6 as Spatial Reuse. The problem occurred when there was a difference in transmission power between an access point “talking” to a nearby device, and simultaneously communicating with a second access point a great distance away. If the first access point reduced its power to communicate with the nearby device, it couldn’t be “heard” by the access point. Wi-Fi 8’s Co-SR is a “maturation” of the Spatial Reuse technology, and will solve the problem by allowing the access points to talk to one another and coordinate their power output, MediaTek said. “Our preliminary trials show that Co-SR could increase the overall system throughput by 15 percent to 25 percent,” MediaTek says. Congestion: the throughout killer.MediaTek Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF): There’s a trend here: Taking earlier Wi-Fi technologies and extending them to multiple access points. Spatial nulling was a feature that was launched in 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), which allowed the router to basically stop signaling in certain directions. By doing so, the router would send the signals to where they were requested, and avoid jamming devices that didn’t want to talk to the router. This technique attempts to solve a fairly common problem in connected households, or in a public space served by Wi-Fi: two devices that sit very close to one another. Coordinated beamforming allows the access points to talk to one another, figure out which device wants the signal and which doesn’t, and align the mesh access point to “steer” the signal away from the device that isn’t communicating to the network by basically refusing to transmit to the region in which it sits. “The throughput offered by Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF) in next-generation MediaTek Filogic is significantly enhanced, with increases ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent in a mesh network setup with one Control AP and one Agent AP,” MediaTek said. Dynamic Sub-Channel Operation: You’re probably aware that the latest devices support for the latest wireless standards, like Wi-Fi 7. But certain devices may also have more or improved Wi-Fi antennas that allow them higher throughput. In the past, that information would be passed to the router, and stored there. That wouldn’t be a problem under most conditions. But in a scenario where a number of different devices were downloading the same file, DSO would create a dynamic scenario where a more advanced device would receive a subchannel for downloading the file, faster. The difference between the older approach and Wi-Fi 8’s DSO would be that the access point would be able to decide, “knowing” the capabilities of each device and what they were asking for, and route the data accordingly. Here, MediaTek believes that DSO could push data throughput 80 percent higher than without the technology. A common Wi-Fi scenario: As you move around your home, your wireless data rate adjusts accordingly.MediaTek New data rates: You may not be aware of what’s called the MCS Index, the Modulation Coding Scheme for Wi-Fi. It’s basically a table to help your Wi-Fi router determine what the link speed should be, so that you can actually connect and stream data without errors. If your throughput slows down as you move around your house, that’s in part due to your device and router “deciding” what connection speed your device should stream at. The problem, MediaTek believes, is that the “step” down to slower rates is too profound, and additional gradations should be introduced, such as 16-QAM with a 2/3 coding rate. The idea would not be to introduce sharp drops and increases in throughput as you moved your phone or laptop around the home, but smaller increments. Again, MediaTek believes that these finer MCS divisions can improve overall transmission rates between 5 percent and 30 percent. A change of pace Again, the evolution of Wi-Fi 8 depends on how quickly the standard moves through the regulatory process. Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) was expected to be approved this past September, and it has not, yet. Sony’s PlayStation 5 may not be approved for India because the country has yet to approve the 6GHz wireless channel that the Wi-Fi 7 standard depends upon. That would hinder Wi-Fi 8, too. The probable roadmap for Wi-Fi standards approval. MediaTek Wireless standards take about six years to develop — and impatient hardware makers rarely wait. As MediaTek notes, Wi-Fi 7 products have shipped since the end of 2023, even though the standard hasn’t been formally approved. In part, that’s because the IEEE committee in charge of the standard rarely makes dramatic changes between the approval of the draft standard and the final standard. For Wi-Fi 8, the first products are expected to be available in early 2028, even as the final approval should be due by the end of that year. It’s worth noting, however, that the race to perpetually higher and higher speeds is pausing, for now, in two different segments of the PC market. CPUs have slowed their rush toward higher clock speeds — at Qualcomm and at Intel — in favor of lower power. With Wi-Fi 8, the emphasis now appears to be on improving the overall user experience first and foremost. Read...

Thunderbolt 5. The cutting edge of I/O. All of it — monitors, a Thunderbolt 5 dock, and even a Thunderbolt 5 SSD — was perched on my desk. I was pleased, in the way only tech nerds can be when they have a piece of gear few others do. A few days later, I was more than happy to take it apart and return to a slower and more functional Thunderbolt environment. Because I am simply not sure that the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem is ready for prime time. This isn’t an indictment of Thunderbolt 5, per se. Rather, it’s all about the headaches that can accompany not one, but a multitude of devices, all of which can interact with each other in unexpected ways. Layer on software, drivers, firmware updates, and the like, and it’s tough to point an accusing finger at any one component. This is what testing cutting-edge hardware can mean: struggling with technology that should just work, but doesn’t. Further reading: Best Thunderbolt docks 2024: Extend your laptop’s capabilities Thunderbolt 5: The next generation of I/O Thunderbolt 5 was announced about a year ago, as the next step in the evolution of the Thunderbolt I/O standard. Thunderbolt wasn’t necessarily designed for power users, but the best Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 docks allows users to place a pair of 4K displays on their desk running at 60 Hz. I find this extremely useful for productivity, as I can arrange several windows’ worth of email, chat, calendar, Web browsers, and more on two or more displays. Both Thunderbolt 3 and 4 provide 40Gbps of throughput. Thunderbolt 5 increases that to 80Gbps, and in certain situations up to 120Gbps, too. This extra bandwidth plays right into the gaming and productivity space, as the extra bandwidth supports up to three 4K displays at 144Hz, two 8K displays at 60Hz, or a single 1080p display at 540Hz. (Intel hasn’t nailed down the specifics of these last two resolutions). Intel is also touting the fact that Thunderbolt 5 should be able to power external GPUs, a capability that was passed over in Thunderbolt 4. The problem is that Thunderbolt 5 hardware is in short supply, period. Although some of the earliest Thunderbolt 5 docks were shown off this past January, it’s now October, and about the only dock I’ve seen announced is Kensington’s SD5000T5 EQ, which I went hands-on with a short time ago. There aren’t too many Thunderbolt 5 cables, either. But a hands-on is not a test and I was eager to obtain hardware that I could use to put the Kensington SD5000T5 through its paces: to connect it to three 4K144 displays via a laptop with Thunderbolt 5 connections and, as a bonus, to see if I could find an SSD that could run at Thunderbolt 5 speeds. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. For whatever reason, devices with Intel’s Thunderbolt 5 host and accessory component (“Barlow Ridge,” or the Intel JHL9580 and JHL9480) have been few and far between. Docks are still scarce, as I said, and only two notebooks to my knowledge ship with a (non-integrated) Thunderbolt 5 controller, a version of the Razer Blade and the Maingear ML-17. Mark Hachman / IDG Luck favored me. The Kensington SD5000T5 remained on my desk, and Maingear agreed to send over an ML-17 for review. A colleague also was in the process of reviewing a pre-release version of OWC’s Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD and agreed to let me test it for a short time in trade for some benchmarking results. Everything seemed to be coming together. Thunderbolt 5 started off poorly, then got worse A few days later, I had cleared the decks of all of my current projects, and sat down to play with the next generation of I/O power. I updated the ML-17 with the necessary Windows updates, Microsoft Store updates, available firmware updates, and so on. Maingear shipped the notebook to me with the Intel Driver & Support Assistant utility updated as well, so I was pretty sure that I had the latest hardware and drivers. The first steps were fairly positive. As most gamers know, gaming notebooks include a hefty power brick terminating in either a barrel charger or the squarish power connector. One of the benefits of Thunderbolt 5, however, is its ability to supply a hypothetical power draw of 240W. Just being able to plug in the gaming notebook into the Thunderbolt 5 dock and power it up without the need for the laptop’s ungainly external power connector left me quite pleased. Well, kind of. I later discovered that the dock would power the laptop on just one of the two Thunderbolt 5 ports, however, and checking it with a USB power meter found that it delivered no more than 87W, even while gaming. Maingear’s Thunderbolt 5 ports aren’t specifically labeled as Thunderbolt 5 ports, just a generic Thunderbolt connection.Mark Hachman / IDG Power delivery of 240W requires explicit support from the laptop, dock, and cable and I wasn’t too surprised that it didn’t meet my expectations. Unfortunately, however, the trend continued. Acer graciously supplied three of its Nitro XV5 (XV275K) 4K displays for a test bed. All three displays run up to 144Hz on the HDMI port and to 160Hz on the USB-C/DisplayPort, which should have been good enough to meet the Thunderbolt 5’s promised to render an image at 144Hz on three 4K displays. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Maingear’s laptop produced an image on just two of the displays plus the laptop itself. (Thunderbolt 4 docks output to two 4K displays, plus the laptop, so I have no reason to believe my interpretation of “three displays” was incorrect.). While one laptop rendered at 4K 144Hz just fine, it was a real struggle to get the other to do the same at 1440p — it took some unplugging and re-plugging to achieve it just once, slowly. I could not consistently repeat this. (Kensington’s dock supplies three upstream Thunderbolt 5 ports. I used Kensington’s own USB-C to HDMI adapter to connect to one display, plus two uni 4K60 USB-C to DisplayPort cables — which are only rated for 1440p165, not 4K — for the others. I was hoping that three displays would light up. They didn’t). In fact, the whole setup felt pretty laggy just navigating around the laptop and via a Web browser — not something you’d expect with a top-of-the-line Intel CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU inside. I’m pretty sure the Thunderbolt connection negatively contributed. Streaming a 4K, 60Hz video stuttered badly when run on the external display that was connected to the Thunderbolt dock — well over 30 percent of the frames were lost. Playing back the same video on just the laptop itself wasn’t perfect, but it was much, much better. Maingear blamed this on the Thunderbolt 5 cable. “I haven’t tested a plethora of cables yet, but the Apple TB5 Pro cable has worked consistently for us,” Matthew Rigassio, a product development manager for Maingear, wrote in an email. “Where Thunderbolt 4 you were able to get away with a decent USB-C cable, thunderbolt 5 seems to work best with certified Thunderbolt 5 cables.” That may be true, but Kensington’s Thunderbolt 5 cable was labeled appropriately and this should be certified. And why should I need to buy an Apple cable to get my PC docking station to work? OWC’s Envoy Pro FX SSD. This isn’t the Thunderbolt-equipped Envoy Ultra I was loaned. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a photograph before I sent it back, but the design is basically the same.Mark Hachman / IDG Storage performance suffered as well When I connected the SSD, the performance of my Thunderbolt 5 test setup was just as bad. I typically run PCMark’s external storage benchmark to test a dock. My colleague Jon Jacobi prefers running storage-specific benchmarks to test the performance of the SSD directly. I prefer PCMark, whose external storage test reports the “bandwidth” of the SSD. That’s what I’m aiming for: How much data does the drive have to work with? I also test a second way, by recording the time it takes to copy a folder full of multimedia and other files from the SSD, through the dock, onto the laptop. I do all that by itself and also while streaming a 4K 60Hz video via the Internet over the Thunderbolt cable, just to see whether a background file transfer will affect performance. The experience, quite frankly, stunk. While running the PCMark test with the SSD directly connected, I recorded a score of 1,743 or 252.3 MB/s. But while connected to the dock, the SSD’s PCMark score plunged to just 1,108 or 159.3MB/s. Was that the dock’s fault or the Thunderbolt 5 connection? One of the two, most likely. When I directly connected the SSD to the laptop and copied my folder to the desktop, it took an average of one minute and five seconds. While streaming video, the same task took 58 seconds longer or two minutes and three seconds. That seemed quite extreme. Weirdly, when I connected the SSD to the dock and then performed the folder copy, it finished in 41 seconds — far faster! But performing the folder copy while streaming the video required two minutes and six seconds, again with the SSD attached to the dock. (The Internet connection was supplied by Ethernet, which remained connected. But letting the system use Wi-Fi didn’t seem to make any difference). It’s worth a reminder that when I tested the Kensington dock on a “normal” Thunderbolt 4-equipped laptop and a slower SSD, the dock performed “normally,” as well. In the past few years, we’ve seen the occasional weird result when benchmarking, such as benchmarks of mobile CPUs run on battery power that exceed the performance of the same laptop while plugged in. Still, the wildly varying results, including the heavy stuttering while playing video, told me something’s not quite right. What is it? I don’t know, which is souring me on the whole Thunderbolt 5 experience. Should you buy Thunderbolt 5? Not right now When testing a single device, a good review works to isolate the variable. Desktop CPUs are tested against the fastest GPUs possible, with common motherboards, memory, and storage (if possible), so that any differences in performance can be directly attributed to the new CPU. Maingear’s Windows 11 Settings menu reports the controller as USB4 v2, which should be essentially identical to Thunderbolt. I can’t find any specific mention of “Thunderbolt” in the Settings or in the Device Manager, just USB4.Mark Hachman / IDG In this case, I’m testing a new dock, laptop, and SSD, with new cables running between them. That’s at least three unknowns I can’t really nail down. So Maingear can accuse the cable of being faulty, while I suspect that Maingear’s hardware may be at fault. I can’t know for certain. What I am a bit suspicious about is the relative lack of Thunderbolt 5 hardware, even late in 2024. Intel has cycled through its Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake launches, and neither includes an integrated Thunderbolt 5 controller. Intel gave some good reasons for excluding it — desktop vendors prefer to “upsell” by using discrete components, for example — but the instability that I’m seeing makes me wonder if there’s something more going on. I’m not writing Thunderbolt 5 off at all. An updated driver could potentially solve this problem or it might require a more sophisticated hardware revision to Intel’s Barlow Ridge controller itself. I don’t know. For now, however I would not recommend buying into the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem. When you buy (or test) bleeding-edge hardware, sometimes you’re the one that ends up with the cuts. Read...

There are many open source programs (aka code that’s accessible to the public) out there for both Linux and Windows. For programs and tools where that’s not the case, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is the ideal solution for using Linux programs on Windows computers. This means that you don’t have to start Linux first and can use the Linux program in the currently active Windows. Programs in WSL run slower than under native Linux, but it’s not always noticeable. Microsoft is also continuing to work on improvements that will be incorporated into the Linux kernel. A newer kernel can therefore speed up WSL. WSL kernel and virtualization In WSL 2, the Linux kernel runs on a hypervisor (Hyper-V), similar to its Linux counterpart KVM/Qemu. The kernel offers functions to ensure communication between the guest and host systems. This concerns, for example, the shared use of the main memory and CPU management. The program code for this comes primarily from Microsoft. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro For Linux users, newer kernels offer support for newer hardware and performance optimizations. Microsoft also regularly optimizes the Hyper-V code in the kernel, but the hardware drivers hardly play a role in WSL because the virtual hardware always remains the same. However, there are drivers that are required for certain applications such as network block devices (nbd), which can be used to mount virtual hard disks in VHD format, for example. Install WSL and check the version Powershell, Command Prompt, and WSL can be used conveniently in the Windows terminal. It’s available by default in Windows 11, but Windows 10 users need to install it via the Microsoft Store. In Powershell, install WSL with the following code: wsl --install -d Ubuntu-24.04 To call up the available distributions, enter the code below and then restart Windows: wsl --list --online After logging in, a Linux terminal will open and notify you when the installation is complete. You will then be asked to enter a user name and password for the Linux account. Update the Ubuntu system with: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade In the Windows terminal, start Linux via the menu that appears after clicking on the arrow button next to the tabs. In Powershell, determine the WSL version with: wsl -l -v If a 1 appears in the Version column for an older installation, update the version with these two lines: wsl --set-default-version 2 wsl --set-default [Distribution] Replace the placeholder [Distribution] with the name of the distribution. Creating a new kernel for WSL 2 Step 1: Start Linux in WSL and install some developer packages with: sudo apt install build-essential flex bison dwarves libssl-dev libelf-dev libncurses-dev git Step 2: Create a working directory and download the source code (four lines): mkdir kernel cd kernel git clone https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git --depth=1 -b linux-msft-wsl-6.6.y cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel Adjust the kernel version if necessary. Step 3: With the following line of code, you can give the kernel its own name: scripts/config --file Microsoft/config-wsl --set-str LOCALVERSION `-custom-microsoft-standard-WSL2` If you wish, you can use this line of code to call up the configuration editor and make your own customizations: make menuconfig KCONFIG_CONFIG=Microsoft/config-wsl Configuring the WSL kernel: The kernel configuration can be edited via “menuconfig”. The entry for “Local version” helps to differentiate between kernel versions. IDG Step 4: Create the kernel with: echo `yes` | make -j $(nproc) KCONFIG_CONFIG=Microsoft/config-wsl Install the modules with: sudo make KCONFIG_CONFIG=Microsoft/config-wsl modules_install Step 5: In Windows Explorer, call up the Linux environment via the entry below Linux in the navigation area. Copy the vmlinux file from your home directory to the Windows user profile in the WSL folder (C:\Users[username]\WSL). Step 6: Under Windows, create the .wslconfig file in your profile folder. Enter these two lines into it: [wsl2] kernel=C:\Users\[username]\WSL\vmlinux Replace the placeholder [username] with your user name. In Powershell, terminate all running WSL instances with: wsl --shutdown If you start Linux in the Windows subsystem for Linux, the following command shows the version of the new kernel: uname -a Read...

Making the switch from the office to working from home has become the new normal, but some users might feel like their setup is not as well-appointed or productive as at the office. It’s time to change that. With the proper equipment and gear, you can turn your boring-old home setup into a workstation powerhouse — ensuring you’ll never need to return to the office again. At PCWorld, we’ve had to adjust to remote work just like the rest of the world. Our staff has spent countless hours testing and reviewing hardware, which means we’ve been lucky enough to find the best gear and accessories available. Below you’ll find our favorite work-from-home essentials. Look sharp during Zoom meetings: Logitech C920e Business Webcam Logitech Working from home means you’ll have video meetings. Lots of them. And those low-quality webcams that ship with most laptops won’t show your brightest side. So opt for a new webcam with high-quality resolution such as the Logitech C920e Business Webcam. It captures 1080p HD resolutions, a 78-degree field of view, and comes with great perks such as autofocus and light correction. Get the Logitech C920e Business Webcam for $69.00 at Amazon Bring stability and comfort with a laptop stand: Lamicall Adjustable Laptop Stand Lamicall A good laptop stand will do wonders for your comfort and health. Not only can a stand keep you in a good ergonomic position, but it will keep your laptop safe and secure on your desk. Plus, a stand makes using a mouse and keyboard with your laptop a lot easier. You don’t need to drop a ton of money on anything expensive, either. A solid lightweight aluminum stand such as the well-liked Lamicall Adjustable Laptop stand will do just fine. It’ll support almost any laptop, from 10 inches up to 17.3 inches. It allows you to adjust both tilt and height and comes with ventilation holes to help dissipate heat from your laptop. Get the Lamicall Adjustable Laptop Stand for $35.99 at Amazon Store your important files for easy on-the-go access: Crucial X9 Pro SSD IDG Sure you might work at home, but you might need something to transport your work files for those occasional trips into the office or just a quick and convenient way to take your data on the go. External drives are a great way to store and back up your files, and their ever-decreasing size means you can now conveniently transport mass amounts of storage anywhere you go. The Crucial X9 Pro SSD is small enough to fit in your pocket, but capable enough to be your main external drive. It’s also one of the most affordable SSDs on the market and comes with up to 4TB of storage capacity. Plus, the 10Gbps transfer speeds are lightning fast for an external drive. It also comes with USB-C connectivity and includes a Type-C-to-Type-A adapter cable so you’ll have no issue connecting it to whichever computer you’re connecting to. Get the Crucial X9 Pro 1TB USB SSD for $84.99 on amazon Block out background noise to help you focus: Wyze Noise-Cancelling Headphones Wyze Labs While products from the likes of Bose and Sony are great, they are also incredibly expensive. Enter Wyze Labs. The company has created a good pair of over-ear noise-cancelling headphones for a surprisingly affordable price. While the audio quality might not be able to compete with the more expensive brands, the noise-cancelling is still top-notch. If you’re looking to block out background noise at your home office or while working in a busy café, these headphones will do the trick just fine. Get the Wyze Noise-Cancelling Headphones for $53.99 at Amazon Get every answer with a smart display: Google Nest Hub Google Marrying Google’s ever-helpful voice assistant to a 7-inch touchscreen, the Nest Hub smart display is much more than a device to control your music playlist or play ambient white noise (though both use cases can make working from home more pleasant). You can also use the Nest Hub to run fact-checks (“When did Musk become the CEO of Twitter?”); get direct spellings of words that elude spellcheck; verify the dates of important trade shows and other events; set workday alarms and reminders; and pretty much search everything on Google hands-free, receiving both audio and video results on a separate, independent display. Once you start exploring the work-from-home benefits of a smart display, you’ll never stop. Get the Google Nest Hub Smart Display for $99.99 at BestBuy Protect your devices with a surge protector: TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip TP-Link Many people take for granted the vulnerability of their electronic devices to power spikes. Unfortunately, after your equipment gets fried is the worst time to realize your mistake. By purchasing a surge protector, you’re only paying a little amount of money to help ensure the safety of your much more expensive electronics. The TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip goes above and beyond a normal everyday surge protector by offering six outlets that can all be controlled and scheduled individually with a mobile app or voice commands, and three USB charging ports. The scheduling system is robust and allows for ultimate flexibility in choosing when to power your devices on and off automatically for any kind of routine or travel need. Get the TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip at Amazon for $44.99 Create a full-on workstation: Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core Docking Station Belkin Your ultraportable laptop may be perfect for commuting to and from the office, but when you’re working from home you want a dedicated workstation with the ability to connect all of your peripherals. A Thunderbolt dock will help you expand your laptop’s capabilities and allow you to connect to a larger monitor and a full-sized keyboard. You’ll increase your productivity and your body will thank you for the ergonomic upgrade. We’ve tested a ton of Thunderbolt docks and the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core is our favorite budget-friendly option. It gives you the reliable Thunderbolt 3 standard, HDMI and a DisplayPort 1.4 ports, all in a package that is easy to travel with and won’t take up much room on your desk. Get the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core for $69.99 at Walmart Or opt for a less expensive USB-C hub: UGREEN Revodok USB-C Hub Hiearcool If you don’t want to drop the cash on a Thunderbolt dock, you should at least consider getting a USB-C hub. Modern laptops tend to lack all of the ports you need to connect peripherals and that’s where a USB-C hub comes in. They are cheap and they allow you to significantly expand your port options. We recommend the UGREEN Revodok USB-C Hub as it gives you a variety of USB-A as well as USB-C ports and microSD and HDMI slots, all for under $20. Get the UGREEN Revodok USB-C Hub for $15.99 at Amazon Don’t skimp on your screen: Dell Ultrasharp U2724DE Matt Smith Working from home is all about productivity, and one of the best pieces of hardware to boost productivity is a great monitor. The Dell Ultrasharp U2724DE is an extremely versatile monitor with a sharp IPS Black panel and enhanced 120Hz refresh rate. It sports excellent image quality, a wide color gamut, and outstanding connectivity options. There are a ton of great monitors out there, but the Dell Ultrasharp U2724DE has an excellent mix of features for anyone who has wants a premium experience without the premium price. Get the Dell Ultrasharp U2724DE for $489.99 at Dell Upgrade that new screen’s ergonomics: Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm Matt Smith/Foundry A good monitor arm is one of the best upgrades you can make to your home office setup. It’ll open up way more options to move and position your display around your desk and it frees up precious desktop space as well. The Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm is our favorite monitor arm for a reason. It’s sturdy, practical, and can pair with almost any monitor around. The LX Premium is designated as an “entry-level” model, but it comes with specs that you’d expect from something much more expensive. It can support monitors up to 25 pounds and comes with 75 degrees of tilt, plus 360 degrees of rotation and pan. Get the Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm for $209.00 at amazon Consider ergonomics: Logitech Lift & Keychron Q8 keyboard Foundry If you’re working from home all day, you need to be comfortable and a standard mouse and keyboard just won’t cut it. Focusing on ergonomics, the Logitech Lift mouse and Keychron Q8 keyboard were built to help keep your hands and wrists in a more comfortable and less injury-prone position. Michael Crider/IDG The Lift mouse can be purchased for either left or right hands and comes in a variety of colors. It’s also wireless, which helps you minimize desktop clutter. The Keychron Q8 keyboard is a bit pricey, but gives you the satisfying feel and dependability of a mechanical keyboard while the curved design allows your wrists to rest in a more natural and comfortable position while typing. Get the Logitech Lift Mouse for $69.99 at Amazon Get the Keychron Q8 Keyboard for $199.00 at Keychron Go wireless: Logitech MK540 Advanced Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo If you don’t want to spend big on a mouse and keyboard, you can find a more affordable alternative in the Logitech MK540 Advanced Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo. Coming in at an affordable $50, the keyboard is surprisingly snappy and has a pleasant tactile experience without too much noise. The mouse provides smooth and reliable use and has a few programmable gestures you can set for your convenience. Both are wireless, so you can do away with all of those annoying cables cluttering your desktop. Get the Logitech MK540 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for $49.95 at Amazon Backup software is a must: iDrive Online Cloud Backup Many people neglect to consider backup when working from home, but if your IT department isn’t covering you and your data, it’s something that needs to be addressed. Luckily there are relatively inexpensive services such as iDrive Online Cloud Backup that make it simple to do. iDrive is comprehensive and versatile and allows you to set up and use the backup service without any fuss. It’s a one-stop shop to help keep your valuable data safe and secure. Get iDrive for $79.50 at iDrive So is a robust PDF editor: Adobe Acrobat Pro DC PDFs are a staple of any modern digital workplace, but they aren’t always the easiest to edit. There are a ton of great PDF editors out there, but Adobe Acrobat Pro DC has been, and continues to be, the reigning champ. There is no other software that combines the same features for creating, editing, reviewing, and securing your PDF documents. Plus, the subscription-based format means that you’ll always have access to the latest version and won’t need to continually buy new software every year. Get Adobe Acrobat Pro DC for $19.99 per month at Adobe Ease eye-strain: BenQ ScreenBar BenQ ScreenBar BenQ To save space on your desk and reduce eye-strain there is no better option than a screenbar — a USB-powered desk lamp that attaches to the top of your monitor. When BenQ debuted its ScreenBar it had us wondering why no one had thought of this extremely practical solution before. It’ll save you desk space and keep you from going cross-eyed from squinting through the reflections on your monitor all day. Admittedly, it’s a bit pricey, but your eyes will thank you in the long run. Get the BenQ ScreenBar for $109.00 at Amazon The conventional desk lamp option: IKEA Forså If you don’t want to shell out the money for a screenbar or it just isn’t your style, then the tried-and-true desk lamp can be a great alternative. At just over $30, the IKEA Forså provides form and function to help keep your desk looking chic and well lit.  It comes with excellent adjustability, a cool old-school chrome design, and a straightforward on/off switch to keep things dead-simple. Get the Ikea Forså Desk Lamp for $34.99 at IKEA Keep upright: Jarvis Bamboo Standing desk When working from home you have a tendency to stay seated for long periods of time even more so than working in an office. And no matter how comfy that fancy ergonomic office chair is, sitting in it all day isn’t ideal. The best way to keep your body happy while working at a desk is to switch to an electric height-adjustable standing desk.  The Jarvis Bamboo Standing desk not only looks nice with its clean bamboo top, but it’s practical too. It comes with an impressive height adjustment range, solid stability (even when maxed out), a great warranty, and decent customization options — it ticks all the boxes for things you want in the perfect standing desk. Get the Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk for $744 at HermanMiller Set the mood: Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer Michael Brown/Foundry A smart light switch isn’t an obvious necessity, until you have one. Being able to control the lighting system in your home office via voice controls, motion detection, or your smartphone is a simple luxury that can pay dividends — both in your mood and in your energy bill. The Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer is built to work with the Lutron Caséta ecosystem, but it also provides broad compatibility with different smart products and systems such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and many others. It also has a minimalist design that doesn’t draw attention to itself. Get the Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer for $69.95 at Home Depot Stay warm: Vornado VH200 Heater In those cold months of winter you need a way to keep warm and comfortable while you work at home. A space heater such as the Vornado VH200 Heater is a great way to keep your energy bill down while still warming a specific area. The Vornado is small enough that it won’t take up too much room in your office, but powerful enough that it can heat an entire room by itself. It’s also extremely quiet, meaning you can focus on your work without being distracted by an overly noisy fan. Get the Vornado VH200 Heater for $68.00 at Walmart Say no to cables: Anker 633 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand Anker A clean desktop can help you stay productive and focused while working at home. One of the best ways to reduce your cord clutter is to switch to a wireless phone charger. It’s also one of the most convenient and hassle-free ways to charge your mobile devices. Right now there’s no better wireless charger than the Anker 633 Magnetic Wireless Charging stand. This 10,000mAh battery provides some of the fastest Android charging we’ve ever tested, it has a clean, minimalist look, and the magnetic stand keeps your phone securely upright, making checking notifications a breeze. Get the Anker 633 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand for $54.99 at Amazon Get some computer speakers: Creative Pebble Creative A full, booming 7.1 surround-sound speaker setup might be great for watching movies and playing games, but for work you don’t need anything nearly as fancy. If you’re working at home you just want something that will produce clear audio during meetings or while listening to some background LoFi beats to help keep you focused. Save yourself some money and go with the Creative Pebble speakers, which for only $40 produce deep and rich audio that you would expect from something two or three times the price. Plus they don’t take up much space and look really good on a desktop. Get the Creative Pebble Speakers for $34.84 at Amazon Do-it-all productivity: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Lenovo You need a laptop while working at home and there are none more suited to the task than the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. It sports great performance thanks to its Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno integrated graphics, and 32GB of RAM. It will not only easily tackle any word processing and spreadsheet work you throw at it, but it can also handle web-browsing while you’re on your “lunch break.” It has a 1920×1200 display with a glare-blocking matte finish, which is ideal for viewing in any environment, and a comfortable keyboard for marathon typing or coding sessions. Get the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 for $1,181.40 at Lenovo Back to basics: Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo If you want something a little more portable (or affordable) than a full-fledged productivity machine like the Lenovo ThinkPad, then look no further than the Lenovo Flex 5i—we’re big fans of Lenovo laptops here, can you tell? This Chromebook has fast performance and a versatile 2-in-1 form factor. Meaning you can either use it as a regular laptop or flip the screen around and use it like a tablet. It’s also portable enough to take to the coffee shop when you need a change of scenery. So long as you don’t require Windows while working, the Flex 5i is a great everyday option. Get the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus for $499.00 at BestBuy Read...

The diversity initiative follows a string of recent high-profile instances of harassment and inappropriate behaviour plaguing the local sector. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent sound quality for voices High sampling rate and bit depth for recording Wide compatibility More versatile light control Cons New multi-control not so intuitive Large in dimensions Our Verdict HyperX’s QuadCast 2 microphone offers fun personalization options as well as high quality sound. What more could you ask for? Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: HyperX QuadCast 2 Retailer Price $149.99 View Deal $159.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket HyperX started out as Kingston’s brand of gaming computer RAM and, like so many other component manufacturers, has since expanded its product offering into all sorts of gaming hardware. In 2018, they released the QuadCast USB microphone. With its iconic look, featuring vibration-dampening wire suspension, and red diode-glowing large puff covers, it’s a popular choice among Twitch streamers. Not only is it stylish, but it provides high sound quality for a good price. You don’t need any audio expertise to make it sound good. Since then, Kingston has sold HyperX to HP and they’ve continued to regularly pump out streaming products. I question the quality of some of these products, though, which is why I was a little worried when HyperX released the QuadCast 2 this summer, a direct sequel to the now classic microphone. Will HyperX deliver an equally good or better mic? Let’s find out. Further reading: Why I won’t spend a fortune on a gaming microphone Standard bracket for free mounting.Mattias Inghe HyperX QuadCast 2: High quality sound Fortunately, the QuadCast 2 is a high quality product that offers a number of technical upgrades. It’s still a condenser mic with three 14mm elements that allow you to switch between four sound pickup techniques, omnidirectional, forward kidney, bi-directional forward, and back (or sideways!). However, HyperX has fine-tuned the technology, increasing the sensitivity of the microphone while lowering the level of noise it generates. The original QuadCast produced great sound, but QuadCast 2 produces even clearer sound. I got my hands on an old QuadCast and I tested the sound recording in the same environment and the difference is actually noticeable. So, what does this mean? It means it sounds damn good. Voices have a warm, natural tone and there’s plenty of detail in the high frequencies. Finally, USB-C. The mini-USB that the predecessor had was already mossy then.Mattias Inghe The sampling rate has gone up from 48 KHz to 96 KHz and the bit depth is 24 bits, an improvement over the previous 16. It doesn’t make much difference when you just push it out directly in a compressed live stream, but if you want to use the mic to record sound and manipulate it afterwards, you have more room to do so without loss of quality. The QuadCast 2 sounds damn good. Voices have a warm, natural tone and there’s plenty of detail in the high frequencies. HyperX QuadCast 2: Free hanging for less interference The design of the QuadCast 2 is recognizable from its predecessor. It’s still a black cylinder with a red LED light behind the grille and puff guard in the top half, with the entire top as a large and extra-sensitive touch button for mute control. The stand with the microphone attached to elasticated wires all around is pretty much the same style as before, but with slightly different mounts that are said to be easier to unhook when needed. The new button is more versatile than before, but is less convenient as a volume control.Mattias Inghe The laces are black now instead of red, which takes away some of its iconic look and it’s completely flat at the ends. Where the QuadCast had a control knob at the bottom for the microphone gain level, the QuadCast 2 instead has a small knob on the front. It controls the volume of headphones, something that was missing in its predecessor. I’m not entirely fond of this little knob, as it emits a loud(ish) sound when turned. It’s not possible to discreetly change the volume during recording. The dial also has a click function, where a quick press switches between controlling the headphone and microphone. A long press is used to cycle between audio recording profiles. It’s more cumbersome than the knob on the back of the QuadCast. That said, you now get a light ring on the top of the mic that indicates which way it’s listening–I appreciate that. HyperX Quadcast 2: Small practical improvements Connection to the computer is via USB-C instead of the mini-USB that the original QuadCast came with. The five Watts of power is good enough, so it should work to connect anywhere. You’re also getting a USB-C to USB-A adapter for the three meter USB-C to USB-C cable. You can manage it from the Windows program Ngenuity instead.Mattias Inghe The microphone is easier to detach from the round table base. The stand mount also allows you to easily mount it on a microphone arm instead, an ideal set-up for streamers. The light is dimmable (and thus switchable) and can be controlled with HyperX’s Ngenuity app for Windows. You also get digital volume control and a digital high-pass filter. You can adjust this if you have too much background noise, but for the most part I’d probably avoid it. You can plug it in and run it on a Mac, a PlayStation 4, or PlayStation 5. That’s what HyperX lists as compatible devices, but it’s only a USB audio device by default, so it’ll work on a Chromebook, a Steam Deck, an Android mobile phone with USB audio support, and the Nintendo Switch. However, not with Xbox, as they insist on not supporting standard USB microphones. That’s not HyperX’s fault, it’s just Microsoft being stubborn. Here you also set diode effects. For example, you can make it light up in sync with detected sound.Mattias Inghe HyperX QuadCast 2: Conclusion The QuadCast 2 offers excellent sound quality, nice dampening capabilities, wide compatibility, and versatility of use. It’s a great device for streaming gameplay, recording a podcast, or sounding professional in a video meeting. Of course, there’s better gear for music studios and streaming studios. XLR mics are designed to fit into an analogue mixing desk, after all. But if you’re looking for a good microphone with nice features, the QuadCast 2 is definitely worth it. HyperX QuadCast 2: Specifications Product name: HyperX QuadCast 2Tested: October 2024Manufacturer: HyperX Connection: USB-C 2.0, 3.5 mm analogue headphoneMicrophone technology: CondenserSampling rate: 96 KHzBit depth: 24Microphone modes: Directional, omnidirectional, stereo, bidirectionalSystem requirements: Windows10 or newer, Mac OS, PS4, PS5, Switch, etcSize (incl. stand): 11 x 12 x 23.8 cmWeight (incl. stand): 1.71 poundsPrice: $149.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 Read...

Back in 2021, when Windows 11 was first announced, there was an interesting feature called Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) that was teased, then publicly released in 2022. WSA allows users to run Android apps directly on Windows 11 PCs. Unfortunately, on March 5, 2024, Microsoft officially deprecated the feature and announced that the Amazon Appstore plus all its apps and games will stop working come March 5, 2025. If you have the Amazon Appstore or Android apps installed on your Windows 11 PC using WSA, they’ll stay operable until the deprecation date. The problem is that WSA is actually quite popular, and the move to deprecate the compatibility layer has been met with harsh criticism on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub. According to Windows Latest, numerous users are upset and asking Microsoft to reconsider, hopeful that Android app support will continue on Windows 11 in some form: “When building an Android app, it is essential to see in a Production environment, and WSA provided this option by allowing you to launch a developed APK for UAT/Beta Testing.” “It’s hard not to feel frustrated when you start using an unpolished feature with the backing of the worst app store only for it to be left unimproved until it’s yanked out from under you.” “Just let me have WSA.” Many of those users have pointed out that key Android apps don’t have proper Windows equivalents or are seriously lacking compared to other options. For example, the Android version of Apple Music is significantly better than the Windows version. Some people even opted to get a Surface Pro over other tablet models for its ability to run Android apps: “I just got a Surface Pro 9 5G to replace my iPad… and a major factor of that is due to Android apps. I’m a business user and no longer need to have an iPad. WSA has become [an] ultimate tool on Windows even if it isn’t polished. Please keep working on it, it has become invaluable to me.” But the likelihood of Microsoft changing its mind is low, as the company simply doesn’t make any money from WSA in its current form. Read...

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Whether you’ve been working from home for years, or you’re new to the game, there are probably several ways in which you can improve your home-office setup for maximum comfort and productivity. We’re talking both hardware and software upgrades here. Things such as a Thunderbolt dock for adding extra ports for external displays and storage, or a monitor arm for total flexibility and improved ergonomics, or a trustworthy VPN and full-featured PDF editing software can all make a world of difference in your overall work satisfaction and success. Here we present our favorite work from home tech of 2024/2025, all of which has been personally tested and approved by PCWorld’s hardware and software experts. Dell Inspiron 14 Plus – Best work-from-home laptop Your home office laptop needs to be reliable; it needs zippy performance and a penchant for productivity; and for optimum flexibility the device should be easy to transport and have exceptional battery life. You get all that with the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus — and you get it for less than $1,000. The Inspiron line is all about business-like practicality, but the Inspiron 14 Plus, while feeling quite durable, features some welcome aesthetic upgrades in the form of its partially aluminum chassis and slender profile. Inside, an Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD make for exceptionally snappy performance. But there’s more to a satisfying work laptop than capable internals. The Inspiron 14 Plus comes correct with an array of suitable accoutrements: a firm and surprisingly quick keyboard with white backlighting, a biometric fingerprint sensor for easy login, and a nice assortment of ports that belie its compact size — headphone jack, microSD card reader, a couple USB-A ports, Thunderbolt 4 port, and full-size HDMI. The screen is also a treat, with a clear 2240×1400 resolution image, comparatively high peak brightness, and an anti-glare coating that can withstand challenging lighting conditions. The icing on the cake is an exceptional battery life lasting just over 17 hours. Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus – Best work-from-home Chromebook Let’s face it, there are many work scenarios in which a full-fledged Windows laptop is overkill. Emails, documents, spreadsheets, and even presentations, are all easily handled using online apps — something a Chromebook can accomplish for a fraction of a Windows laptop’s cost. Of course, some Chromebooks are more capable than others, such as the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus. Among Chromebooks, the Plus designation signifies more robust performance, in this case an Intel Core i3-1315U CPU, Intel UHD graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD. What really sets the Flex 5i Chromebook Plus apart, however, is its attractive styling and impressive build quality. In the words of our reviewer: “This thing looks and feels fancy, real fancy.” The 2-in-1 design lets you use the device as a standard clamshell, in a tent configuration, or as a tablet. Input options include both a backlit chiclet-style keyboard that’s pleasantly springy to use, or touch input via the 1200p crisp and vibrant display. Performance is speedy and satisfying, and the battery, while not stellar, ran for over nine hours on a single charge — enough to last a full day away from an outlet. Read our full Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus review NexiGo HelloCam – Best work-from-home webcam Best Prices Today: $69.99 at Amazon$69.99 at NexiGo There are a couple reasons why we consider the NexiGo HelloCam to be the best work-from-home webcam. For starters, it does what you want a webcam to do: Its 1080p/30fps fixed-focus lens produces a good picture that will have you making a positive impression in your Zoom meetings. The noise-cancelling mics will ensure that you’re being heard loud and clear. But the NexiGo HelloCam offers another perk for home workers: Windows Hello support, which lets you log in to your Windows computer with facial recognition. This is a feature that’s usually relegated to higher-priced webcams. The HelloCam also offers a requisite privacy shutter, here in the form of a physical barrier that shuts when the webcam is not in use. Alternative option: If you don’t need Windows Hello, you can save a little money and get a slight boost in resolution (to 1440p) with the Anker PowerConf C200. Dell U2724DE – Best work-from-home monitor Best Prices Today: $499.99 at B & H Photo There’s no better all-around home office monitor than Dell’s Ultrasharp U2724DE. Image quality is top-notch thanks to the IPS Black panel. Besides boasting an impressive contrast ratio, it also excels at color performance. A 120Hz refresh rate means that it can be pressed into service for after-hours gaming sessions. The stand is fit for purpose with solid construction and all the expected ergonomic adjustments, including 90-degree rotation into portrait mode. But the real show-stopper is the near-universal connectivity that should meet the needs of almost any scenario. Multiple video inputs, support for “daisy-chaining,” 90 watts of power for charging a device connected via USB-C, downstream ports for peripherals, and even a 2.5G RJ45 jack. There’s also a KVM switch and an ambient light sensor for intelligently adjusting screen brightness. Indeed, the U2724DE is no slacker! Read our full Dell U2724DE review Herman Miller Flo – Best work-from-home monitor arm Best Prices Today: $295 at Herman Miller A monitor arm is one of those pieces of gear that turns a conventional home office into a seriously professional setup. That’s particularly true of the Herman Miller Flo, which ticks all the boxes for a premier product. Aesthetically, it’s about as smooth and stylish as a monitor arm can be, capable of blending in with any environment. Setting it up is simple, thanks to a refined design that requires relatively few screws and a VESA mount that can be pre-mounted to a monitor and then clipped into place. The Flo offers a wide range of adjustment including tilt, swivel, and rotation, but more importantly, its operation is smoother than other products, moving into place with only a nudge. It also comes with a 12-year warranty and 24/7 customer support. It’s pricey, but everything about the Flo is top shelf. Anker 555 PowerExpand 8-in-1 USB-C Hub – Best work-from-home USB-C hub Best Prices Today: $49.99 at Amazon Whether you’re using a laptop or a desktop PC, port accessibility might be lacking. In such cases, the Anker 555 8-in-1 USB-C Hub has the answer. Anker’s hub offers a full complement of connectivity for legacy USB devices like mice and keyboards, for both SD and microSD media, for charging USB-C devices at up to 85W, and for running a monitor over HDMI at 60Hz. An Ethernet port is also part of the mix. The hub is well designed, even elegant, with a premium aluminum and polycarbonate exterior that keeps cools in use. It’s got a nice, sturdy heft at 4.5 ounces, and even comes with a carrying pouch. Plugable TBT3-UDZ – Best work-from-home Thunderbolt dock Best Prices Today: $255.41 at Amazon$369 at Newegg There are times when a USB-C hub falls short of your connectivity needs, such as when you want to connect two high-res monitors — scenarios that call for a Thunderbolt dock. The the best of the bunch is Plugable’s TBT3-UDZ. Okay, yes, it uses Thunderbolt 3 rather than Thunderbolt 4, but the capabilities and performance are mostly equivalent (while saving you a few dollars). What impresses us most about the TBT3-UDZ is its flexibility. Whether your two monitors use DisplayPort cables or HDMI, this dock will accommodate them. Two 4K displays can run at 60Hz in tandem. Of course, the TBT3-UDZ has every other kind of port you could want, as well — USB-C, a plethora of USB-A, standard and micro card reader, headphone jack, Ethernet, the whole gamut. It can charge a smartphone and a laptop. We also appreciate the space-saving vertical orientation of the attractive and solid gun-metal chassis, and the ample 30-inch cable that connects the dock to your PC. Read our full Plugable TBT3-UDZ review Logitech MX Keys S Keyboard – Best work-from-home wireless keyboard Best Prices Today: $109.99 at Amazon For anyone who favors a stylish keyboard that works effortlessly with multiple devices, the Logitech MX Keys S is it. Sporting an almost Apple-like clean aesthetic, the MX Keys S is a low-profile board that comes in Graphite, Gray, or Rose colorways. Besides being visually stunning, the full-sized layout is comfortable to type on, with a smooth and sure feel to the keys. The white backlighting automatically adjusts to the ambient lighting conditions. Using either Bluetooth or the bundled proprietary Logi Bolt dongle, the keyboard can be switched among three devices. If you prefer a mechanical, “clicky” keyboard, we recommend the also-very-good Logitech MX Mechanical variant. Read our full Logitech MX Keys S Keyboard review Creative Pebble X Plus – Best work-from-home computer speakers No home office is complete without a good set of computer speakers. For a compact, capable, but affordable solution, we think the best option is the Creative Pebble X Plus. The system consists of two speakers and a subwoofer. It offers Bluetooth, aux, and USB connection to your audio source of choice. A button on one of the satellites lets you switch between devices. The sound output is clear and can easily fill a room. There’s excellent detail in the treble and midrange. Besides providing a significant boost over your laptop’s audio, the Pebble X Plus features RGB for some added visual flare when it’s time to clock off and unwind. Read our full Creative Pebble X Plus review Lexar SL600 Blaze 20Gbps USB SSD – Best work-from-home external SSD Best Prices Today: $129.99 at B & H Photo There are many very fast external SSDs to choose from. But in our tests, the Lexar SL600 Blaze is not only among the fastest, but also competitively priced, making it an obvious recommendation for portable storage. Available in up to 4TB capacity, this USB 3.2 x 2 (Superspeed 20Gbps) not only has the space for even large, multimedia projects, it will be reading and writing that data at a wonderfully brisk pace. While SSDs are known for their durability, the SL600 Blaze’s 5-year warranty just provides extra assurance. Read our full Lexar SL600 Blaze 20Gbps USB SSD review SanDisk Desk Drive 10Gbps USB SSD – Best work-from-home SSD for backups Best Prices Today: $249.99 at Western Digital There is no worse feeling than laboring over a project — be it work-related or personal — only to lose it all because of a drive crash, power outage, mistaken deletion, or some other tragedy. This is why the importance of a solid backup solution cannot be overstated. Laptop users in particular should consider an external drive for backup. And if time is money, an SSD will get ‘er done far faster than an external hard drive. The SanDisk Desk Drive 10Gbps USB SSD is the external backup SSD to beat. Available in 4TB or 8TB capacities, this rugged desktop companion will not only provide that relatively speedy auxillary storage for data redundancy and/or overflow, as an SSD you needn’t worry about its susceptibility to jostles, shocks, or drops, as you would with a mechanical hard drive. Read our full SanDisk Desk Drive 10Gbps USB SSD review R-Drive Image 7.2 – Best work-from-home Windows backup Best Prices Today: $44.95 at R-tools Technology As noted above, there’s no excuse not to prepare for data disaster. We’ve told you what backup drive to use, but what about backup software? R-Drive Image has a legacy of reliability that makes it unmatched in this space. Indeed, in our experience its record is unblemished! Now at version 7.2, R-Drive Image is more full-featured and capable than ever. It offers the range of backup duties: disk and partitions, files and folders, WinPE and Linux boot media creation, the works. You can save your backups locally, to the network, or to your preferred cloud storage. You can even replicate backups across multiple destinations.  The interface is straightforward, and performance is speedy. There’s really no need to consider other options.  Read our full R-Drive Image review EaseUS PDF Editor – Best work-from-home PDF editor Best Prices Today: $49.95 at EaseUS There is no denying that the pinnacle of PDF editing is Adobe’s Acrobat Pro DC. But it’s probably overkill for the needs of most home office-workers, while being relatively expensive. That’s why our recommendation for the best PDF editor for a home office is EaseUS PDF Editor. For just $49.95 a year, or an incredible $79.95 lifetime subscription, you get a full set of PDF editing tools, including a variety of annotation tools for easy collaboration. The app is straightforward, making it possible to jump right in and get started. Add and remove text; add images; change font type, color, and size; add watermarks, background, headers and footers; enable permissions and password protection. It’s all here. The one caveat is that it’s Windows only. For more suggestions, see our roundup of the best PDF editors. Read our full EaseUS PDF Editor review ExpressVPN – Best work-from-home VPN A virtual private network (VPN) is a key component of online privacy, routing all your internet traffic through an anonymized and encrypted funnel. If you want to protect your work (or personal) online activities protected from prying eyes and/or hackers, a VPN is a must. In addition to that, by allowing you to run your internet browsing through servers all across the globe, a VPN can help you access your streaming services when you’re abroad, or bypass other regional restrictions. ExpressVPN is our favorite VPN overall. It’s feature-rich but easy to use; it provides broad device support; it uses diskless servers, so none of your data is ever permanently stored; it undergoes third-party audits for added reassurance about its privacy practices; and it offers some added benefits such as ad- and tracker-blocking and a password manager. Read our full ExpressVPN review Norton 360 Deluxe – Best work-from-home antivirus software For full-coverage antivirus protection at a reasonable price, Norton 360 Deluxe is the total package. You can relax knowing that Norton’s strong online protection has your back with minimal resource overhead. In addition to real-time monitoring against threats online, you can also perform scans of varying scope or complexity at will or on a schedule. Norton has earned very high marks from the major third-party testing outfits. Norton 360 Deluxe also offers lots of extras, such as cloud backup, a password manager, dark web monitoring, and even PC utilities. All those things might be value adds for you, but the core competency of the product — keeping you, your data, and your devices safe from nefarious actors — is why we consider it the best antivirus software overall. Read our full Norton 360 Deluxe review Read...